Aila-lotto Exposed – Okay, It’s Time to Take Off the Mask
Aila-lotto Review
It’s really amazing all the online lottery sites that are popping up. The Australian International Lottery Agency or aila-lotto.com caught our team’s eye the other day. I took a look and frowned. This one caught my personal interest so I said let me dig in and see what they are all about. I was right to hear the alarm bells go off. Let me tell you why.
How does AILA work?
Aila-lotto.com is an online lottery provider for two Australian lotteries, the Australian Superdraw and a bunch of Superdraw Syndicates. Okay, first off, I noted that the supposed Australian Superdraw is in fact simply the regular Saturday Lotto 6/45 draw held regularly. There is no question the overall amount that will be drawn on the next Saturday is up there at 21 million, but – the big but – it’s a shared amount through all prizes. The amount advertised is not the big jackpot.
Okay – back to what aila-lotto.com actually offers. Players can purchase single lottery tickets, or subscribe for a run of draws. Their syndicates appear to be capped at fifty players for 830 tickets. Aila-lotto.com’s site seems pretty clean until a potential player starts digging into the information. There is no information on the site on who these guys are.
So Who Is Aila-lotto.com?
AILA stands for Australian International Lottery Agency. I punched through every aspect of their site to see who they really are. I mean, if I’m going to provide my personal and credit card details, I want to know who I am giving it to.
It wasn’t until I’d spent almost an hour on their live chat that I finally got to the bottom of who AILA was. Gosh – golly gee. AILA is actually owned and operated by the European Lottery Guild. Now I understand why their online chat person was so hesitant to provide that information. By the way, IrishJackpot.com is one more site operated by these guys.
Let’s Look Deeper at Aila-lotto
I actually called their only landline number (Vancouver, Canada) to see what they had to say. Then I noticed, their online chat was available and of course, would prefer a written transcript of their answers, so switched to that. The online chat operator kept reiterating that they have been in operation since 1999 but I’d already noted their website had a 2014 registration. So why?
European Lottery Guild aka Aila-lotto
Yup, these guys have been around since 1999 under a variety of names and contact points. Names like C-W Agencies Ltd. and Randall Thiemer, never mind Neil Belmonte (a la his supposed theft of client identity and info records) all are associated with this company. Originally based out of Vancouver, Canada, it shifted its head office to The Netherlands a bunch of years ago. Sales and customer service is still run out of Vancouver.
Customer Complaints at Aila-lotto.com
Why they left the sales and customer service in Canada is anyone’s guess, but there is no question they must be very busy dealing with complaints. Okay – in fairness, the complaints are all related to European Lottery Guild. That includes an article in the UK Guardian. The Australian International Lottery Agency is simply listed on a whole bunch of lists of scam companies with no backup information.
I don’t think I’ve ever read that many complaints on a company (European Lottery Guild – the owners) especially the fact they intentionally target the elderly and have some serious problems with math in utilizing people’s credit cards. Of course, all the blogging of complaints I take with a grain of salt, but it’s hard to ignore when there are just so many!
Aila-lotto’s Bottom Line
Back off folks. There are enough really great lottery providers out there that are verifiable, don’t hide behind new company names and provide great service. I can honestly say that I have not personally dealt with aila-lotto.com but why would I!
Pros:
None!
Cons:
You Really Have to ASK?
The simple fact that they do not provide any links or information on who actually owns them is enough for me to say no! I can’t say you as a player won’t get your winnings, but I’m not sure what interesting adventures are going to occur to your personal info and credit card details.
Jessie Ryan
Sadly, there are these kinds of jokers around that mess up the reputation of good online providers. Everyone wants to be lucky – so they buy in – especially with hard core sales people. The more that these kinds of things are reported, the more people can be protected!
I”ve started to play with aila-lotto 6/45, i bought my tickets with elg in vancouver,canada. I”f i had known that it was part off elg, i would have told them to kiss my A–. Colin.